Poll #30: "Will you be getting Brawl on day one?" results, banner, news

"Hell yes!" 32 (82%)
"Perhaps" 0 (0%)
"Nope" 4 (10%)
"Already imported it!" 2 (5%)
"Other" 1 (2%)

Well, damned if those results weren't expected! When I stood in line on Sunday, it was the biggest grouping of gamers I've seen yet! Possibly even bigger than the Wii launch itself! I'm lucky I got there when I did, or else my place in third would have been a far-off dream.

So, in keeping with the Brawl madness, this week's banner is based around the game of the hour. Yeah, the trimming around Sonic blows chunks. At least I tried.



Okay then, here's this week's poll: "What control scheme in Brawl do you use most?" Kotaku rip-off? Sorta, but this is a pretty different audience here, so I'm curious to see how different the results turn out. Plus, everyone's doing something Brawl related as a poll, so oh well.

...and I kinda though up this poll before I saw the Kotaku one, but time travel has yet to be perfected.

Anyways, I prefer the Wiimote and Nunchuk. I started off with the Gamecube controller, but after trying out the others, the two-handed method really worked for me. Classic controller is pretty cool, and I'm surprised how much they managed to cram into the sideways Wiimote. But I'll leave anything more to the review...

Speaking of the review, it's going to be a little different this week. Every post from now until Friday is going to be part of a Brawl review. Tonight will be about the controls, Wednesday will be about the non-Brawl modes, and Friday will be about the main events. It's such a huge game that cramming it all into one review just doesn't seem right to me. So three parts it is!

Let Brawl Week begin!

The Duck Has Spoken.

Games: Having fun VS mastering the program

I'm the kind of guy who won't sit down and play Wii Tennis. I can't sit in a patch of tall grass and EV train my Pokémon. It just doesn't work for me. To me, it seems like these methods of playing just sap all the fun out of a title, stripping it down to a mechanical act aimed at getting the high score.

I don't understand how some people can do it. Running around, only fighting the enemies that will increase you stats in the perfect way... This isn't how Pokémon was meant to be played! I'm fully aware of how EV training works, and I know how great it can be for a person's team. But it just isn't fun for me. I train my Pokémon the good old fashioned way: By running into random Pokémon and trainers and battling them with whichever teammate I please. Sure, my team is weaker because of this, and I'm sure to be laughed out of professional competitions for it, but it works for me.

If everyone EV trained, battles would come down to sheer luck. It would all fall upon whether someone got a critical hit, or if this attack missed, or if Quick Claw made a Pokémon strike first. Strategy's a factor, I know. But with each Pokémon on the field being a well-groomed killing machine, it just seems like it's more of a competition of who gets the first strike than anything else.

And where's the fun in the in-game battles? If your Pokémon are all perfectly EV trained, each fight is but a minor inconvenience, merely slowing you down slightly. Isn't the whole fun of challenging the Elite Four not knowing whether or not you'll come out alive? It's not as if it's just some landmark you must pass, it's a challenge you must overcome.

I don't need to be the master of a game to have fun with it. I suck majorly at bowling. Seriously, I'm probably the worst player in the league. But I have fun because I get out there, toss my ball, and have a good time. When I get a strike, it's great. When I get a gutter ball, oh well. If I were to strike with every single ball, it wouldn't be fun anymore. The fun is not being perfect, but simply doing your best. Sure, I'm likely to never win a trophy, and I'll never beat anyone else on my team, but hey, I have fun.

I know, people tend to have more fun when they win. Nobody likes being a loser. But being a winner every time isn't fun either. If you know you're going to win, what's the point? If you're a perfectly tuned, invincible adversary, every game is but another step. Losing is great, because not always coming out on top is what makes winning so satisfying.

A margin for error is the key to enjoyment for me. If I simply sit down and flick my wrist in Wii Tennis, I win, but I don't have fun. I need to get up on my feet and toss myself around the room, flailing my arms. That's the fun for me. I'm likely to miss several shots, but that's what makes the stunning comebacks so great. I run around and battle any Pokémon with any Pokémon, regardless of how it will affect my EV distribution. I lose once in a while, sure. But the wins mean so much more because of it.

I play games for fun. How about you? Do you master every aspect of the game, or do you just sit back and enjoy the ride? I'd like to hear your stories, so please respond in the comment section, or in this forum thread.

The Duck Has Spoken.

Some more ideas for Animal Crossing Wii

All Animal Crossing Wii-related posts and brainstorms can be found right here.



So, a month has passed since my last Animal Crossing Wii ideas post, and still no word on the game from Nintendo. How much longer will we have to wait for even the smallest sliver of information? Well, in the absence of details, we have speculation and brainstorming. So here goes with some more suggestions for Animal Crossing Wii.

Advanced clothing design

In all Animal Crossing games so far, making a shirt or dress out of a pattern always results in the same pattern being used for the front, back and sleeves. For example, if you make a pattern that looks like a suit with a tie, your character will appear to be wearing a tie on their back and arms. Not exactly what you had in mind, huh?

So here's what I propose: Allow players to assign patterns to the individual parts of the shirt/dress. Players could have a pattern for the front, another for the back, and one more for the sleeves.

One problem is this would be unable to work with the usual ability to turn a pattern into a shirt/dress on the go. While in previous games you could just drag a pattern over your character to make them wear it as a shirt/dress, the advanced clothing creation would require each pattern to be assigned to a part of the shirt/dress one by one. This would require a new screen on the menu, and I see it looking something like this:

My concept for an advanced clothing design interface

As you can see in my "crudely-drawn-in-MS-Paint" concept, advanced clothing design really isn't so difficult, but it still requires several different patterns to take full advantage of. If players want to change their clothes real quick, but still want the advanced clothing design results, they can save pre-made shirts/dresses to a secondary function of the above page. This way, they can just open the design page, click on their pre-made shirts/dresses, and put it on. All the personality in far less time!

One more thing I want to point out about the above concept is the button labeled "Switch to Basic Editor". The basic editor is actually the default page whenever opening this part of the menu. The basic editor consists of a list of patterns and the player's character, with the player dragging their patterns onto the character for the old-style clothing design. They may end up wearing ties on their sleeves, but that's a sacrifice that must be made to make things quick and easy.

Online item auctions and trading

Looking for a rare item, but none of your friends have it? This calls for an online auction! Working just like eBay or any other real-life auction site, players can bid on rare items posted by other players in hopes of adding them to their collection. When the auction closes, the winner will receive his/her prize via in-game mail upon the next mail delivery. And of course, you can also set up auctions of your own, selling whatever you feel like parting with.

Not into bidding? Have no fear, trading is here! You can post an item online, and request the rare item you desire in return. You can also check out what items other people have put up for trade, and take them up on their offers if you please. Think of it like Pokémon Diamond and Pearl's Global Trade System, but instead of Pokémon, you're trading for items!

In both trading and bidding, you can search for posted items by name, category, theme/set and size. Here's an example:

Name: Snowman Couch
Category: Seating
Theme/Set: Snowman
Size: 1 x 2

You can fill in as many or as few of the fields as you want, and you can even hit a random button to check out a random item someone posted. The main page of the trading and auction section would show recently posted items, soon-to-close auctions, and the top five hottest auctions. You never know what you'll find, so look often!

More diverse plant life

Run around any Animal Crossing town, and you'll see nothing but tree after tree after tree... I think it's time we add bushes to the mix. Trees are great, but I don't think I've ever walked through a forest without seeing some sort of shrubbery scattered around. The addition of bushes could go hand in hand with berries joining the game, working hand-in-hand with the already-existing fruit. They'd probably sell for less and be far more common (Probably four or five berries a day per bush, opposed to a tree's three fruit), but high volumes of berries would also make it easier to spread the plant around the town, meaning more bushes. More bushes means more berries, and more berries means more money! Quantity beats out quality here.

And how about some more hazardous plant life? Some poison ivy would be an interesting addition. Just imagine running into a villager scratching itself furiously, yelling about how much they hate that poison ivy. The player could remove the poison ivy by digging it up, or maybe do something a bit more diabolical with it. Just imagine you go to dig up some poison ivy, and see some seeds drop from it. You thoughts quickly turn to your least favourite villager, and an evil idea comes to mind. You run to his/her house, surround it with poison ivy, and enjoy the floor show.


"What's that, Monique? You want me to plant some flowers in your front lawn? Can do... Heh heh heh."

This shouldn't be too hard of a feature to add. I'm sure Nintendo can easily whip something up from "scratch".

A bigger town square

The cobble stone-paved area in front of town hall plays host to the occasional visitor, such as Crazy Redd and Gracie. But these are small events. What if there's a festival in town? Surely a big celebration couldn't fit on such a puny little area. Just take a look at the gargantuan festival in the movie!

The festival in the Animal Crossing movie is far too large to fit in the
current town square

The town square certainly needs a bit more space. Festivals would be a blast in Animal Crossing, but it can't happen if it can't fit.

Of course, festivals wouldn't be the only thing happening at town square. The near-monthly Flea Market Day from Wild World could evolve into a full-blown, weekend-long event. Vendors from all over would set up shop and sell rare and foreign items usually impossible to find in your town. There could also be stalls dedicated to games, with even more items up as prizes. The motion controls would turn this into a series of mini-games, with several classic carnival-style games available to be played. The difference, though, is that it will actually be possible to win these games. No carny tricks! Well, at least at any stall not run by Crazy Redd... Crafty little fox.

Alright, so ends yet another list of ideas for Animal Crossing Wii. As always, feel free to discuss this in the comments section or in this forum thread.

The Duck Has Spoken.

Game idea: A game from the law's perspective

There have been a whole lot of games focusing on super heroes, and just about as many based on being on the wrong side of the law. But where are the games about being the man behind the badge? Why aren't there more titles starring the boys in blue? Where are all the cop games?

I'm thinking the game would have a very open-ended format. Players could merely roam around the city, in cruisers, on foot, riding motorbikes, or whatever. "Missions" would be received on the police radio, with a marker appearing on the map. Players then race to the objective and perform the necessary duty. What could the missions be? Here are some ideas:

Robberies: Cops get called to robberies all the time, and the thefts featured in the game could range from a stolen magazine to a bank heist. The required tasks once at the scene would vary from crime to crime. The player could arrive to find the suspect already under control thanks to a store clerk, or perhaps the situation would elevate to a chase on foot (Or even a vehicular pursuit). If things get real nasty, a stand-off could take place, with several units pointing their guns at the crook. Players would have a choice of holding their ground, ordering fellow officers to charge, or disabling the perpetrator with non-lethal weaponry.

Police Chases: Possibly the most action-packed part of any cop show or movie is the inevitable chase scene. What would a cop game be without one? When called to a chase-in-progress, the player would have to make a few key decisions in order to intercept the chase. Quick thinking and driving skills would be key here! Once caught up with the chase, the player can use one of many maneuvers to get an edge on the fleeing vehicle. Working together with other units in the chase, the player could orchestrate a rolling road block, closing in on the crook from all sides. Or perhaps spinning out the criminal is more your style? A carefully executed PIT maneuver is just what the doctor ordered in this case. Of course, there's always the option of chasing until the guy gives up or damages his car beyond operation, but that's no fun!

Domestic Disturbances: This is probably the kind of thing players will most often be called to. Sometimes it will be as simple as just reaching the target in time, but in other cases it may be much more. Perhaps the fight has turned ugly, resulting in an arrest and calling for backup. Or maybe the culprit takes his victim hostage, leading to a stand-off. As with the human nature it's based on, this type of mission can take many unexpected turns.

Of course that's just for starters. There's still drug busts, field sobriety tests, hostage situations (As suggested in "Domestic Disturbances") and anything else that makes up the world of policing.

Like with real cops, excessive force would not always be allowed. Unless approved by a superior officer (Or if the situation turns violent), players would be heavily penalized for attacking, shooting at or otherwise injuring their target. So no running down a crook with your car to put an end to a foot chase. No shooting out a lawbreaker's knee for stealing a woman's purse. Applying the right force to the right situation would be key, and becoming too violent could result in mission termination (AKA: Failure) and suspension (Or even expulsion) from the force. This black mark would haunt your character for the rest of his career, permanently tarnishing his or her reputation. And if your rep is no good, you're never going to make that promotion to chief!

The basis of a police game would lend itself greatly to the tutorial sections. In the game, your character could be a rookie on the force, and whenever a new type of mission or situation arises, the character could recall a training course at police academy, with the flashback serving as the tutorial.

And with further steps up the career ladder, the player would gain access to new "abilities", such as working with a police dog or gaining the use of advanced weaponry (Non-lethal bullets, tasers, etc).

Players should also take special care to maintain their equipment. You wouldn't want to go into a police chase and run out of gas, would you? And it would be imperative to always keep a full clip of ammo in your pistol.

The possibilities for a police video game are insane, and I'm simply stunned to have not seen anything like this so far. Who hasn't wanted to be a police officer, even once?

Feel free to discuss the possibilities in the comment section or in this thread.

The Duck Has Spoken.

Poll #29: "Wii Pay to Play: What do you think?" results, banner

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" 17 (37%)
"Ah poopy. I guess I'll just have to pay up." 2 (4%)
"If the benefits are worth the cash, I'm all for it". 23 (51%)
"Hoo yeah! Bring it on! Here, take my cash now!" 1 (2%)
"I don't know" 2 (4%)

It seems that people either accept the change, or plain hate it. Well, we'll just have to wait and see how this all works out.

This week's banner is (As usual) by me. I know, Super Mario Galaxy is "so last year", but I just had to take a spin on that classic line. The banner can be permanently found below, as will be standard with all future banners.



Okay then, this brings us to the new poll: "Will you be getting Brawl on day one?"! This applies to the PAL gamers, too, just with "day one" becoming an unknown date in the far future. Anywho, I'm voting a big ol' yes on this poll. Got my pre-order slip all ready to go!

Tonight's article will be up in a few hours! As for now, I have some chores to do...

The Duck Has Spoken.